Slane hint at challenge for junior crown

SLANE put their poor league form behind them as they made a winning start in the Junior B Championship at Simonstown last Friday evening.

The east Meath side have yet to record a victory in the league campaign and lost out to Boardsmill in their opening match. However, they showed plenty of endeavour in this tie, especially the opening half, to deservedly capture the points.

This was the proverbial game of two halves, the first laced with plenty of attractive football and some excellent scoring, the second scrappy and littered with basic mistakes.

On the basis of their opening-half display Slane would have to be considered contenders to be involved at the business end of things.

However, what they served up after the break wouldn’t win many matches.

Slane strung together some great passages at times and were by far the superior of the two teams, but against better quality opposition their sloppiness in the closing stages would have proved costly.

Both sides opened with an excellent brace of points inside the first seven minutes. Eoin Feeley hit after that, with a Tully pointed free their only other contribution to the scoring.

Fortunately, Boardsmill were unable to take advantage, managing only one point before Danny Dixon toe-poked to the net on 56 minutes.

Prior to that the Slane defence had a number of scares, though, including an effort which Rory Finnegan cleared off his goal line on 49 minutes.

Both of Boardsmill’s remaining scores arrived in added time, with Niall Durkin converting a free and Bernard McLoughlin then blasting over the bar with a goal at his mercy.

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